Yet Another Medical Test
May. 20th, 2004 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sraunSo, at 8:15 this morning I walked into Cedar Riverside Hospital to have a basic blood draw - red blood cell count, white blood cell count, white blood cell breakdown.
At 8:30, I took 12mg of Dexamethasone. I understand that it's an oral steroid.
At 1:30, I'm supposed to be getting another basic blood draw, for the same numbers as the 8:15 one.
This is what is called a Neutrophil Activation Test - my Neutrophil count is low (this is one of the symptoms of the LGL Leukemia), the steroid tricks my body into thinking that it's under attack by a bacteria, and we hope that the Neutrophil count goes up for the second test. It it does, it means that there are Neutrophil reserves that aren't circulating, but are available to be called up at need. If it doesn't, it's an indicator that a somewhat more aggressive treatment is in order for the LGL Leukemia.
I'm ending up taking a half-day off for this - the total time Work <> Cedar-Riverside, with test time in between, is long enough that I'm declaring it not worth it to go back to work.
Also, I have this suspicion that I'm going to be running a fever, and feeling generally miserable.
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Catherine